NBCUniversal’s Matt Schnaars Named New Content Distribution President as Mac Budill Exits

Virgin Media has cut the price of its social tariff broadband package in response to the ongoing cost of living crisis. The telecoms giant confirmed its Essential Broadband package, which is aimed at those people receiving Universal Credit, will drop to £12.50 a month for all new and existing customers.

Spotify has named new managing directors for its Gimlet and Parcast podcast studios the day after news that it plans to cancel a combined 11 original podcasts and eliminate about 5% of its podcast headcount.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify has appointed new managing directors for its Gimlet and Parcast podcast studios — Nicole Beemsterboer and Liliana Kim, respectively — coming amid the company’s cancellation of 11 original podcasts from the two divisions. Spotify elevated Beemsterboer (above left), a former longtime NPR exec who joined Spotify this year, to the role of Gimlet’s managing director. She takes over for Lydia Polgreen, who left Spotify this spring to rejoin the New York Times as an opinion columnist. Prior to joining as Gimlet’s head of news and knowledge in March, Beemsterboer spent more than 15 years at NPR as a producer where she led the creation and reorganization of the public media org’s first longform podcast unit, the Enterprise Storytelling Unit. At NPR, Beemsterboer worked on shows including “Embedded,” “Invisibilia” and “White Lies.”

Universal Pictures Wins Big At 2022 BASE AwardsThe British Association for Screen Entertainment hosted the 42nd annual BASE Awards at Camden’s Roundhouse Thursday night and Universal Pictures led the winner’s list, taking home five awards, including Outstanding Innovation for Streaming ‘Live’ to Your Living Room: Stand-Up Comedy with Eddie Izzard and Dylan Moran, and Best in Class Packaging for Inglourious Basterds: Total Basterds Edition. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery followed close behind with four awards each. Sony Pictures Entertainment took home Campaign of the Year for New Release Film – Over 15m Box Office for Spider-Man: No Way Home, while Warner Bros. Discovery won Home Entertainment Campaign of the Year – TV for Game of Thrones: The Iron Anniversary.

There are stories so good they can withstand any amount of retelling. Matilda began life as Roald Dahl’s rollicking tale of an outrageously spirited, clever little girl who defeats the bullying headmistress whose vocation is to make children miserable. The Royal Shakespeare Company turned it into a Christmas musical that burst the banks of the festive season, running for years and winning seven Olivier Awards in 2012 in London, then five Tonys the following year in New York. Now, director Matthew Warchus, along with writer Dennis Kelly and songwriter Tim Minchin, has directed the London Film Festival opener Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical for the screen. And once again, it is an absolute blast.

Phil Oppenheim, who has held senior exec posts at Epix, Lionsgate and Turner, has been named chief content officer at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

The long-circulating rumor is true: HBO Max’s new movie Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! acknowledges that the franchise’s Velma is LGBTQ.

Essendon is facing backlash from some fans over the appointment of Andrew Thorburn, the chairman of a conservative Christian church that preaches homosexuality is wrong and that abortion is “legal murder”, as the club’s new CEO. Trigger Warning: This story discusses homophobic comments, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.Essendon President Dave Barham announced the appointment and described Thorburn as “a man of great integrity and exceptional vision.”On its website, the City on a Hill church claims that “practicing homosexuality is a sin, but same-sex attraction is not a sin”. In a 2013 article, the church says “God has designed sex to be enjoyed within marriage between one man and one woman” and adds “a Christian who is same–sex attracted should not identify with being gay”. The Church is much more strident in its views against abortion rights, equating it to Nazi “concentration camps”.A 2013 sermon about abortion says: “Whereas today we look back at sadness and disgust over concentration camps, future generations will look back with sadness at the legal murder of hundreds of thousands human beings every day through medicine and in the name of freedom.” A 2022 sermon reaffirms the church’s opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape. I've made the difficult decision to resign my Essendon FC membership, and those of my children, due to the Essendon board's decision to appoint the chair of a homophobic and anti-health care church to the position of CEO.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The Gersh Agency has promoted literary agent Sandra Lucchesi and talent agent Matt Vioral to partners, expanding its total leadership to 28 people.  Gersh, which ranks as the lone privately-owned full service agency, makes the move amid consolidation and rapid ground-shifting in the representation landscape. A spokesperson told Variety the elevations serve to “highlight the strength and history of our resources while taking advance of our business around multi-hyphenate clients.” Agency co-presidents David and Bob Gersh, along with managing partner Leslie Siebert, said they were “very proud of the leadership Sandra and Matt have brought to the agency and their respective departments and how well respected they are by their industry peers. We are thrilled to promote them both to partner.”

Disney+ is getting a new president.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Anonymous Content is currently an exploring an acquisition of Grandview/Automatik, Variety has learned from sources. Should the deal go forward, it would merge the two management and production companies into a single entity. Sources say that the two companies had previously had limited discussions about a potential merger, but nothing was serious until recently. Reps for both Anonymous and Grandview/Automatik declined to comment. Grandview/Automatik was originally founded in 2014 by former CAA agent Matt Rosen, manager Jeff Silver, and producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. On the management side, Grandview currently has 20 managers handling over 500 clients. Among their top clients are “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski, “House of the Dragon” co-creator Ryan Condal as well as series star Olivia Cooke, “Atlanta” executive producer and director Hiro Murai, “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg, and “Maid” creator Molly Smith Metzler.

Disney’s favorite witches are back! Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy stepped out in New York City to celebrate the premiere of Hocus Pocus 2 on Tuesday, September 27.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Candle Media’s Exile Content Studio has joined forces with Trojan Horse Media, the team behind the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, “Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado,” to produce premium content with international appeal. This will include scripted, unscripted and audio content. The new partners first collaborated on the podcast series “More Than a Movie: American Me,” which dropped on Sept. 15. The podcast series delves into the true story of Edward James Olmos’s 1992 cult film classic, “American Me,” and the legacy the polemical film left behind. The 12-episode audio-documentary is hosted by Trojan Media’s Alex Fumero.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kevin Mayer says that the investment strategy at Candle Media, the hard-charging entertainment startup that he heads with Tom Staggs, is product of his career time at Disney and TikTok. While those two companies are behemoths and Candle Media a newcomer, the claim is not as outlandish as it seems. At Disney, Mayer was largely responsible the launch of the direct-to-consumer streaming businesses that became Disney+. And as Disney, Pixar and other group content was made exclusive and contained within a walled garden, it stoked demand for premium independently-made content. Candle Media sets its sights on becoming just such a supplier.

“Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann’s extravagant musical biopic. Either you fall in love with its aesthetic, which depicts Elvis (as portrayed by “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star Austin Butler) as the puppet for a scheming Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), festooned with editorial flourishes and stylistic embellishments, or you think that its high drama is actually, somehow, both overwrought and undercooked.

Matt Smith is opening up about his character’s iconic white hair on the new HBO series House of the Dragon.